Draco and Hermione's chance
by behindthatcover
Summary: Draco and Hermione are in their seventh year at Hogwarts, and despite all odds, they are deeply in love with each other. But they are in danger of being killed by Voldemort every day as he gets stronger and stronger, and they decide that the only chance they have of being together without the constant threat of Voldemort is to seek a life in the muggle world.
1. Chapter 1

**Draco and Hermione have had enough of living under the constant fear of being killed by Voldemort every day. They decide to run away from Hogwarts in their seventh year to the muggle world after realising that the muggle world is the only place where they might be able to hide from Voldemort. But living in the muggle world is not as easy as it seems, and somehow Voldemort nearly always manages to track them down. **

**Hope you enjoy reading it and reviews are very much appreciated :)**

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"You sure about this Hermione?" Draco whispered almost reluctantly to her. Their plan was absurd, but it seemed like the only way out for them, the only way they could possibly have a chance. Hermione nodded, and mounted the broomstick besides her. Following her lead, Draco did the same. Hermione shook the tiny beaded bag dangling on her arm. She had put an undetectable extension charm on it, and it contained all of Draco's and her possessions, as much as they cared to bring with them into the muggle world.

Kicking off on their broomsticks, Draco and Hermione took off into the air, away from the silent castle, the wind whipping in their hair. Off at last! Draco was a little apprehensive, he had never been too fond of muggles, having been brought up by parents who detested muggles. But Hermione had managed to convince him that hiding in the muggle world was the only choice they had if they wanted to escape from Voldemort and his death eaters. The wizarding world was too small to hide the both of them.

"Where are we going?" Draco asked curiously, as Hogwarts gradually grew smaller and smaller behind them and finally faded out of sight altogether. "I was thinking maybe we could go to King's Cross station, then find a place to stay, and set out again in the morning..." Hermione said hesitantly. It did not seem like much of an idea, but she could not think of anything else. Draco agreed, but it was a few long hours before they finally managed to reach King's Cross. The morning sun was already rising in the horizon as they hastily landed just outside the station, thankful that they were not spotted by any muggles.

"A coffee and maybe some breakfast?" Hermione suggested as she saw Draco stifling a yawn. "A coffee? What's that?" Draco asked curiously. He had never heard of muggle beverages before, having only being accustomed to pumpkin juice, butterbeer and the occasional firewhisky. "You'll see," Hermione replied mysteriously, guiding him to a nearby cafe after stowing the broomsticks in her bag.

"Two cappuccinos please." Hermione told the cashier behind the counter. Their drinks arrived quickly, and Draco took an eager sip, only to spit it back into his cup almost immediately. Some of it landed on the counter, and the cashier shot him a disgusted look. Hermione tried to stifle her giggles, but failed miserably. "What is this foul liquid?" Draco asked, sounding thoroughly revolted. "It's coffee," Hermione replied, trying not to sound too amused at Draco's reaction to the first muggle drink he had tried.

"The things muggles drink, no wonder they're so much more stupid than wizards," Draco muttered in an under his breath. He had not meant for his words to sound so cutting, but he was extremely embarrassed by the cashier mumbling words such as "uncultured baboon, uncivilised being," which plainly referred to him as she mopped up the liquid that he had just spat out.

"Draco!' Hermione sounded rather hurt, and he realised a split second too late that he had indirectly insulted Hermione's parents, who were muggles. "We had an agreement, you're not to insult muggles, especially not in the muggle world," she continued warningly. "Sorry," Draco said grudgingly. They had barely started out in the muggle world together, and the last thing he wanted was an argument.

"Would you like a coke instead?" Hermione asked. Draco nodded, hoping that it would not be as bad as the coffee. He took a tentative sip out of the can after Hermione paid for it and was relieved to find it acceptable. "Let's sit down," Draco motioned to the empty tables and chairs spread out all over the cafe.

"So where do you think we should go now, since it's already morning?" Draco asked. "Is it safe to stay in London?" He grimaced as someone who apparently knew Hermione waved at her as he walked into the cafe. "But the dark lord won't guess that we ventured into the muggle world," Hermione said. "He thinks that you're too proud a Slytherin to try to live among muggles."

In response to Hermione's words, he pulled up the sleeve of his left arm, to reveal the dark mark branded into it, the mark that all death eaters had. Hermione groaned. It had slipped her mind that a death eater could be tracked by the dark mark branded into his arm. She glanced nervously around her, as though half-expecting death eaters to come charging into the cafe and drag Draco and her to Voldemort.

So absolutely nowhere was safe. Hermione sighed, frustrated at how that detail had slipped her mind. Then a thought came to her, and it seemed like the best solution. "We have to transform into our animagus form, the dark lord can't track us down if we're in that form," Hermione said in an undertone, aware of the cashier's eyes still on them.


	2. Chapter 2

Yes, that was it! Transforming into an animagus could be a very good disguise indeed, Draco thought. Wow my girlfriend's a genius. Sitting across him, Draco realised Hermione was blushing slightly, trying not to grin. Draco had forgotten she was also an accomplished occlumens.

Making their way out of the cafe, they headed into a tiny alley not far from there. The day was becoming warmer and Draco and Hermione knew that if they did not assume their animagus form then, it would be even harder to do so later on. "On the count of one...two...three..." Draco whispered. And in a matter of a few seconds, there were two brown otters standing in the places of the two teenagers.

Luckily, a very clever Hermione had discovered a method of communication between Draco and herself when they were in their animagus form. For a reason unknown to either of them, they could use legilimency to communicate with each other when they were in their animagus form, eliminating quite a fair bit of squeaking.

_Where do you think we should be headed_, Draco thought, willing Hermione to be able to gain access to his thoughts. There was a long pause, and Draco thought that his attempt had failed, but thankfully Hermione's voice appeared in his head a long moment later, hesitant and thoughtful. _There's a pond near here..._ she thought. _We could go there...__  
_

Draco was aghast. First he had made his way into the muggle world, then Hermione was daring to suggest that they go to live in a pond. A pond, for crying out loud! He was starting to think that Hermione was joking but after seeing a very Hermione-like expression for "well-what-better-idea-do-you-have-anyway" on the face of the otter opposite him, he thought reluctantly, _well, alright then..._

Almost immediately, Hermione in the form of an otter began bounding in the direction of the pond she had suggested, the beaded bag hanging awkwardly around her neck. _Well, one thing's for certain, _Draco thought, trying to be optimistic. _"The dark lord will never think of hunting for us in a pond."_

The sun was rising very quickly, far too quickly for either of their likings as they made their way through the streets of London. More and more muggles were heading to work, rubbing their bleary eyes in shock as they spotted two otters racing across their paths, a beaded bag dangling from one of their necks.

"Mommy, do you think they escaped from the zoo?" A young boy pointed at them as they halted at a busy junction, cars all around them. The mother looked at Draco and Hermione and Hermione felt her heart sink. They wanted to draw as little attention as possible to themselves but being otters in the streets of London, it was rather impossible.

_We could have actually walked there, in our human form, to the pond or wherever we are going..._Draco thought sullenly. _And the death eaters terrorising muggles all over London will of course forget how we look like in our human form?_ Hermione thought sarcastically. Again, Draco admitted to himself that Hermione was right.

Suddenly, the boy's mother made a grab at the bag hanging around Hermione's neck. "What is it," she wondered out loud, "it's really pretty..."

But before her hand could make contact with the bag, Draco and Hermione reacted as one, sinking their sharp teeth into her fleshy hand. A high-pitch squeal escaped from her lips, and her tiny piggy eyes filled with hate. "These otters are savage!" she shrieked, "Someone call the zoo, they have to be caught!"

Draco was admiring the teeth marks on the hands of the muggle who had dared to try to grab the bag which contained all of their possessions when Hermione's thoughts came into his mind again. _Hurry, we have to go. NOW. _The urgency in her voice startled him, and as they raced across the busy junction, Draco wondered what a "zoo" was.


	3. Chapter 3

_"Great, now even the muggles will be after us,"_ Hermione thought in disgust. "_You didn't have to bite that muggle woman..." _Hermione's thoughts trailed off as she sensed the indignation radiating from the otter besides her. She sighed and scurried into another alley, changing back into her human form hurriedly. Draco followed suit.

"So after less than an hour of being otters in the muggle world, we have to assume our human form again?" Draco started accusingly. "And what is a zoo," he added as an afterthought, the taste of the muggle's hand still stuck unpleasantly in his mouth.

Hermione took a deep breath. "A zoo is a place where some animals are held in captivity and muggles pay money to go there to look at them," she started. "And since you bit that woman, the muggles will be thinking that we, in our otter forms, are dangerous, and have to be brought to the zoo to be held in captivity for the safety of muggles." Hermione sighed in frustration.

"Dangerous?" Draco had a sudden urge to laugh. The muggles were under the threat of Lord Voldemort every day, and they were afraid of otters? "Well, at least we don't have to live in a pond now," Draco tried to joke, seeing the despondent look on Hermione's face and tried to cheer her up. One constant in the ever changing world was that it still upset him to see Hermione sad. "We'll survive the muggle world. We've still got each other." Draco made another attempt to reassure her.

Taking a deep breath, Hermione attempted a weak smile. She seemed to be thinking, and after a short while said hesitantly, "Shall we try transfiguration?"

Before Draco could reply however, they heard, to their horror, a loud, raspy voice shout "Stupefy!" and a jet of red light shot past, missing them narrowly. Hermione turned back, and saw a leering death eater standing several feet behind them, wand outstretched. "Well well well," he said threateningly, "looks like I found the death eater that abdandoned the dark lord and that filthy little mudblood!"

Hermione felt Draco tense-up besides her as the death eater uttered the offensive word "mudblood". Suddenly, jets of light were flying in all directions as Draco reacted instinctively and shot a spell at the death eater. More and more death eaters were appearing behind the death eater that had spotted them. Muggles were running and screaming and Hermione realised that they were outnumbered. She grabbed Draco's arm and everything went black as they disapparated, twisting through darkness.

Several moments later, they fell over, panting, on soft grass. Hermione looked shaken, her face pale and frightened. "I didn't know they would find us..."she whimpered, staring into the dark trees surrounding them. "We should have stayed in Hogwarts, we shouldn't have came into the muggle world, it's my fault...all my fault..." Hermione was working herself into hysteria.

Draco stared helplessly at her. He was not very good at comforting others, and all he could think of was reaching across him and wrapping his arms around Hermione tightly. But it was no good. Hermione's sobs echoed around the clearing of the forest they were in. Draco could not blame her. Hermione's plans had always went as she had hoped, and she took failure harder than an average witch.

"Remember back in potions class in Hogwarts?" Draco started tentatively. Hermione nodded, having no idea why he would bring up potions classes. "Snape always picked on you, he made fun of you in front of the whole class. He somehow always hated seeing you do well. And remember that time when he attempted to force you to drink your own shrinking solution in front of the class to see if it worked?"

Of course Hermione remembered. She looked up at Draco, watching him closely. What came after that was actually one of the best things that had happened in her seventeen years.

"And then you shouted across the class at Snape, something like "I don't think it's fair professor, if you really want to test it, you can drink it yourself."" Hermione continued, giggling slightly, her tears stopping. The look of rage and shock that his own student would stand up to him on Snape's face was so comical the Gryffindors had burst out laughing.

"It'll be okay, just the two of us," Draco continued, his voice dropping to a whisper. The death eaters and the dark lord are the bad ones, like Snape. They'll try to target us, but I'll protect you, like I did that day."

Hermione wanted to believe that. Draco was all she had left. "And everything will be alright," her voice trailed off as she imagined the death eaters hunting for them.


End file.
